2004 IHRA World Nationals, Part 1
By Vic Cooke
A rain delay and/or event postponement is nothing new in drag racing, which has always been subject to the whims of weather conditions. This year it impacted the 27th annual IHRA World Nationals, held at Norwalk, Ohio, in a major way. Originally scheduled for August 25-28, with Sunday August 29 as a raindate, not even this built-in allowance for uncooperative weather was sufficient. Rain suspended the Friday schedule after only one round of professional class qualifying was completed.
On Saturday, a second qualifying session was completed, but only the first round of Funny Car and a half-round of Pro Stock eliminations were able to be contested before the rains returned. An effort to complete the event on Sunday got nowhere, as showers again prevented it from even getting started. That forced an event postponement to the next available weekend after the planned events at Martin, Michigan and Budds Creek, Maryland--that being Saturday, October 9.
With this much of an interval, it was like two different races! What started as a “Summer” event for qualifying and the aborted eliminations ended up becoming a “Fall” event for the final eliminations with distinctly different weather and track conditions. Meanwhile, the intervening races had changed the complexion of the season points chase in several cases, presenting a whole new twist on the significance of the event on the Championship standings. And lastly, the rescheduling put the event in conflict with the NHRA event being conducted the same weekend at Reading, PA (itself, the result of a rain postponement in NHRA’s schedule!) This impacted several teams and affected both events.
This bizarre combination of circumstances was almost an omen, setting the stage for some of the unexpected twists that occurred during the eliminations themselves. Not even Hollywood writers could script a more convoluted story line for a blockbuster who-dunnit! The fans certainly got a memorable event (at least those who were fortunate to return, as all the re-scheduling took its toll on those who were able to do that and it played before a much smaller than usual crowd).
When it was said and done, Clay Millican had runner-upped the event but “clinched” the 2004 Top Fuel Championship (his fourth consecutive title!), while Mike Janis similarly locked down the Pro Mod Championship when he defeated his nearest rival, Harold Martin, in the second round. The contests in Funny Car and Pro Stock drew even closer, with less than a round’s worth of points separating Mike Thomas and Rob Atchison for the Funny Car Championship.
It’s equally tight in Pro Stock, where John Nobile and John Montecalvo swapped places at the top of the standings. These latter two nailbiters will be resolved in the final event at Rockingham, NC. Additionally, several shuffles in the Championship order took place in the ranks immediately behind the leaders that will take the Rockingham race to ultimately resolve.
Our “fans-eye-view” photo coverage of the event spans both the August and October activities, and is divided into two sections. This section will cover Top Fuel and Funny Car racing, while the Pro Mod and Pro Stock racing is reviewed in a separate report.
Top Fuel:
The Top Fuel division was the one least affected by the intervening races in terms of the Championship Points situation. Millican led Litton by 251 points coming into Norwalk in August and by 255 points when he returned in October. He only needed to “appear” at the World Finals to clinch the season title, which he did. Doug Foley, on the other hand, was a distant fourth in the standings behind Cullinan as the August qualifying began. He made the semi-final at Martin and won the Budds Creek event, and by the conclusion of the World Nationals had vaulted past Tim Cullinan into third place by a margin of 88 points, with a “mathematical possibility” of displacing Litton for second place in the unlikely event Litton does not qualify for the final race at Rockingham. Foley scored his second consecutive win over Millican at Norwalk.
Funny Car:
Coming into Norwalk in August, Mark Thomas had a 92 point lead in the points race over Rob Atchison, although Atchison had been advancing steadily in preceding events. Atchison's better showings between Norwalk-August and Norwalk-October had shrunk Thomas’ lead to only 19 points. Atchison seemingly had the momentum to take over the lead at this event. Both racers went two rounds before losing. This yielded a near-draw in points accrual with an 18 point spread all that is now separating them as they move on to Rockingham. Jim Sickles advanced to fourth place in the standings, displacing Terry McMillen, by virtue of his second consecutive win at the Worldnationals.
FUNNY CAR REVIEW:
We begin our "fan's-eye" photo coverage with the action in IHRA's Alky Funny Car class:
Larry Dobbs, far lane, and Terry Munroe on a side by side qualifying pass. Dobbs qualified #12 with a 6.119/232.75 and Munroe #10 at 6.055/234.41.
Chris Foster, far lane, qualified at #8 with a 5.976/234.79. Fred Tigges, near lane, ran a strong 5.879/240.04 qualifying best for the #3 starting spot.
Jim Sickles entered eliminations as the #5 qualifier after carding a best of 5.971/238.17 in qualifying.
Mark Thomas had a best time of 5.894/24.29 in the August qualifying sessions, making him the #2 qualifier for eliminations.
Rob Atchison was at the top of the heap as qualifying concluded, securing the #1 spot with a 5.856/238.17 pass.
The first round of Funny Car eliminations were completed in August before rain interrupted the conclusion of the event. Terry Munroe advanced with a 6.03/6.77 defeat of Dan Roman driving the “Absolute Pleasure” entry.
Chris Foster won over Tony Bogolo in the first round of eliminations, running a 6.00 to Bogolo’s 6.13.
Jim Sickles got a free ride into Round 2 when Larry Dobbs broke before staging, but nonetheless ran a 6.02 in an effort to maintain lane choice. Other racers advancing into the second round included Atchison, Thomas, Tigges, Parker and Wildgust. With the rain interruption, Round 2 was postponed into October.
Six weeks later, with the resumption of Funny Car eliminations, Sickles would face Scott Wildgust in Round 2. Sickles proceeded to trailer Wildgust with a 5.87/6.04.
Tigges was unopposed in the second round, as Neal Parker was a no-show for the conclusion of eliminations. Similarly, Mark Thomas ran unopposed when Terry Munroe also failed to return. In the remaining race of Round 2, Rob Atchison posted the quickest and fastest pass of the event at 5.804/242.10 in defeating Chris Foster.
In the semi-finals, Sickles was the underdog against Atchison, but prevailed with a 5.98/6.71 win when something just went away in Atchison’s car at mid track. The opportunity was wide open for Mark Thomas to pad his Championship Points lead, but he proved unable to capitalize on the situation as Fred Tigges drove around him at the top end and won the race 5.868/5.917.
In the final round, Tigges was caught napping with a 0.230 reaction time. Jim Sickles 5.92 was more than adequate to cover Tigges’ quicker 5.88, and Sickles had won his second consecutive IHRA World Nationals Funny Car title.
TOP FUEL REVIEW:
As the Top Fuel cars started their first round of qualifying on August 27, dark clouds had already closed over Norwalk Raceway Park in advance of the coming rains. It would make for an unusual “headerflame by day” session for the nitroburners!
The first two cars to approach the line were making a debut appearance at an IHRA meet, both coming over from Indianapolis where they they had been involved in testing for to the NHRA Nationals to be run the following weekend. For Andrew Cowin, it marked a return to competition after the young Australian suffered a near-fatal head injury in an off-season fall some 18 months prior. Opposite him was Cory McLenathan, driving in the Carrier Boyz Racing Berryman Top Fuel dragster. Team owners Andy and Mark Carrier are the sons of IHRA founder Larry Carrier, so the IHRA “connection” for them was instrumental in their visit.
Cowin ran a 4.96/265.33 on this pass, while MacLenathan encountered traction problems, pedalled a couple of times and shut off. Cowin’s time held for the #7 spot by the conclusion of qualifying at Norwalk. MacLenathan would improve with a 4.894/297.48 in the next round of qualifying, positioning the car at #6 at the time the event was postponed.
Rick Cooper (far lane) and C.J Nelson paired up in this qualifying attempt. Cooper would make the field as the #3 qualifier with a run of 4.866/265.95 in the second round. Nelson failed to qualify.
The legendary Chris Karamesines (near lane) and John Sipple were paired in this qualifying attempt. Sipple would run a 5.09 on this pass, then improve in the second round with a 5.06, leaving him just outside the field in the #9 spot at the conclusion of qualifying. Karamesines failed to qualify at this year’s event.
The top two cars in the points standings were the final qualifying pair on Friday. Clay Millican scorched to a 4.656/310.84 that placed him at the head of the pack on this pass. Bruce Litton followed with a 4.917/295.53, then improved the next day with a 4.892 that brought him into eliminations in the #5 spot. The other qualifiers included Louie Allison at #2 with a 4.814, Bobby Lagana, Jr. at #4 with a 4.874, and Doug Foley at #8 with a 5.012.
As mentioned earlier, by the time eliminations resumed on October 9, all Millican had to do to sew up his fourth IHRA Top Fuel Season Championship was to collect his points for appearing at another event. Also mentioned earlier was the conflict that existed with the rescheduled NHRA race being held several hundred miles away in eastern Pennsylvania.
A number of the qualified cars at Norwalk run both IHRA and NHRA meets and had to make a decision which meet to attend. This included Millican, McLenathan, Cowin and Lagana. Millican opted to run Norwalk, and so sealed his season victory at this event. Being a true competitor, he didn’t just appear to cement his championship then rest on his laurels! The Pro-cars all had the opportunity for a tune-up time trial prior to eliminatons, and Millican went out and unreeled a 4.695/309.20 to announce he was here to race!
Andrew Cowin also opted to return to Norwalk rather than run the NHRA Maple Grove event. With the car better dialed-in after many rounds of racing since August, Cowin rolled up for the pre-race test session and uncorked a 4.648/315.34, a vast improvement over his best prior qualifying effort. Suddenly it looked like Millican had a serious challenger on his hands! Bobby Lagana, Jr. made the decision to try to run BOTH the NHRA and IHRA events. He qualified at Maple Grove, and with his position secure (in part because of Cowin’s absence there!) he towed over to Norwalk for the World National eliminations on Saturday, with the intent of returning overnight for the NHRA race on Sunday.
Doug Foley benefitted when Cory McLenathan failed to return to Norwalk. McLenathan had committments to attend the NHRA event and chose to just stay there. This left a “hole” in the qualified-car roster at Norwalk that was filled by advancing Cowin and Foley one position and promoting Sipple from #9 to #8, rounding out the field. In so doing, Foley dodged the prospect of facing Millican in the first round, and instead that mighty challenge fell to Sipple! Luck like this would continue to follow Foley all through eliminations.
The opening round of eliminations started out with a great contest between #4 Lagana and #5 Litton. With nearly identical reaction times, Litton and Lagana were side by side the whole track, but Lagana emerged the victor 4.751/4.782. It was to be the closest race of the day!
Next it was Andrew Cowin lining up opposite Rick Cooper. Cowin took the easy victory with a 4.753/313.51 as Cooper couldn’t get hooked up.
By virtue of the qualifying changes prompted by McLenathan’s absence, Doug Foley faced Louie Allison in Round 1. Both cars smoked the tires partway into the run, but Foley was able to pedal and hook up again leaving Allison way behind, 5.61/11.28. This placed Foley against Cowin for Round 2, but a freak situation prevented Cowin from starting his car and Foley lucked out yet again with a sweatless ride into the final!
Millican disposed of Sipple in the first round, 4.91/4.98. In round 2, Litton ran a 4.67 against a tire-smoking Lagana to advance to the final opposite Foley. It was a repeat of the final round of the Budds Creek event, and fortune was still smiling on Foley this day. Foley got a half-carlength jump on Millican off the line (.040/.063) but the race almost immediately became a smokefest with both drivers pedalling their way downtrack without ever full regaining traction. Foley crossed the finish line the winner, 6.72/9.53. It wasn’t pretty, but Foley had beaten Millican two-straight and leapfrogged Cullinan into third place in the season’s points standings.
